A New Declaration

Warning: Illegal string offset 'single_featured_image' in /home/oocupied/public_html/site/wp-content/themes/confidence/content-single.php on line 71

Photo: www.bethanybond.com

We hold these truths to be self-evident:

That the real, physical world is the source of our own lives, and the lives of others. A weakened planet is less capable of supporting life, human or otherwise.

Thus the health of the real world is primary, more important than any social or economic system, because all social or economic systems are dependent upon a living planet.

It is self-evident that to value a social system that harms the planet’s capacity to support life over life itself is to be out of touch with physical reality.

That any way of life based on the use of nonrenewable resources is by definition not sustainable.

That any way of life based on the hyper-exploitation of renewable resources is by definition not sustainable: if, for example, fewer salmon return every year, eventually there will be none. This means that for a way of life to be sustainable, it must not harm native communities: native prairies, native forests, native fisheries, and so on.

That the real world is interdependent, such that harm done to rivers harms those humans and nonhumans whose lives depend on these rivers, harms forests and prairies and wetlands surrounding these rivers, harms the oceans into which these rivers flow. Harm done to mountains harms the rivers flowing through them. Harm done to oceans harms everyone directly or indirectly connected to them.

That you cannot argue with physics. If you burn carbon-based fuels, this carbon will go into the air, and have effects in the real world.

That creating and releasing poisons into the world will poison humans and nonhumans.

That no one, no matter how rich or powerful, should be allowed to create poisons for which there is no antidote.

That no one, no matter how rich or powerful, should be allowed to create messes that cannot be cleaned up.

That no one, no matter how rich or powerful, should be allowed to destroy places humans or nonhumans need to survive.

That no one, no matter how rich or powerful, should be allowed to drive human cultures or nonhuman species extinct.

That reality trumps all belief systems: what you believe is not nearly so important as what is real.

That on a finite planet you cannot have an economy based on or requiring growth. At least you cannot have one and expect to either have a planet or a future.

That the current way of life is not sustainable, and will collapse. The only real questions are what will be left of the world after that collapse, and how bad things will be for the humans and nonhumans who come after. We hold it as self-evident that we should do all that we can to make sure that as much of the real, physical world remains intact until the collapse of the current system, and that humans and nonhumans should be as prepared as possible for this collapse.

That the health of local economies are more important than the health of a global economy.

That a global economy should not be allowed to harm local economies or land bases.

That corporations are not living beings. They are certainly not human beings.

That corporations do not in any real sense exist. They are legal fictions. Limited liability corporations are institutions created explicitly to separate humans from the effects of their actions—making them, by definition, inhuman and inhumane. To the degree that we desire to live in a human and humane world—and, really, to the degree that we wish to survive—limited liability corporations need to be eliminated.

That the health of human and nonhuman communities is more important than the profits of corporations.

We hold it as self-evident, as the Declaration of Independence states, “That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends [Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness], it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it. . . .” Further, we hold it as self-evident that it would be more precise to say that it is not the Right of the People, nor even their responsibility, but instead something more like breathing—something that if we fail to do we die.

If we as a People fail to rid our communities of destructive institutions, those institutions will destroy our communities. And if we in our communities cannot provide meaningful and nondestructive ways for people to gain food, clothing, and shelter then we must recognize it’s not just specific destructive institutions but the entire economic system that is pushing the natural world past breaking points. Capitalism is killing the planet. Industrial civilization is killing the planet.

Once we’ve recognized the destructiveness of capitalism and industrial civilization—both of which are based on systematically converting a living planet into dead commodities—we’ve no choice, unless we wish to sign our own and our children’s death warrants, but to fight for all we’re worth and in every way we can to overturn it.

Warning: Illegal string offset 'author_box' in /home/oocupied/public_html/site/wp-content/themes/confidence/content-single.php on line 95

Denis

I could not have said this better myself. We need to change our focus and direction. Creating our own sustainable communites and stop supporting the existing systems. Living simple lives on and off the land. Without us the system will collapse. We have no choice but to act now to save our children’s futures. Now is our time, delay and there will be no future life on this planet. We must throw everything we have into this paradigm and way of life shift or become exitinct with all the other species we take down with us.

Deepgreenresistance

As Derrick says we need to fight for all we’re worth. But how can we be effective against such odds? Deep Green Resistance is a new, radical environmental movement. Deep Green Resistance is for those who can’t wait anymore. For the heartbroken. For those who are tired of ineffective activism. For those who know the real world and are willing to do whatever it takes to protect it and restore it and ourselves. And most importantly, for those who are willing to consider a new strategy. DGR has a plan of action for anyone determined to fight for this planet….and win.http://deepgreenresistance.org/dew/

Gilnaki

i could not agree more.

Exigently Patient

I like the statement “That reality trumps all belief systems: what you believe is not nearly so important as what is real.” I think it is important to recognize how easy it is to have beliefs and to hold fast to them, but how difficult it is to align the with reality in an adequate way.

While I support the gist of this declaration, I wish more effort and voices were put into it. It is crude and simplistic. It touches on matters of importance, but in a way I see to be inadequate.

dan allen

…do you own a pen?

http://www.facebook.com/jenese.james Jenese James

well said as usual derrick – every thing you say is but a symptom of something much deeper – this thing that is deep is the blind spot the hidden unmentionable – it is the separation of ‘man’ from the divine – from himself, from nature – from all life -even if ‘he’ walks and lives amongst it he has detached himself from it – this is the symptom of a loss of connection – it allows what has been done to be continued – the capitalistic material world exists to fill that deep chasm of inner disconnect

Magick

Jenese, I just posted something on this article and then found your comment and I was happy to see you also see the deeper chasm, I am working on a piece about this that I would like to send to you once its done. my email is magick@ magicktarot.com shoot me an email after you have read my comment if you are interested. Thanks for your words.

Mike L

If there will be any, the surviving descendants of mankind will look back at their ancestors as beings who were completely detached from reality and prayed to the Gods of profit and exploitation, converting everything that was living and noble into feedstock for mass consumption. Why didn’t they see the insanity of their ways? It was far easier to turn a blind eye to the truth and go over the cliff with the rest of the brainwashed lemmings. What a tragedy.

http://thegreatpurification.wordpress.com/ Eamon

As far as reality goes, capitalism and industrial civilization are just words, ideas. Capitalism never killed anyone or anything. The harm has always been done, is being done, and will always be done by people, people who act as they do precisely because of what they believe. People’s actions are the manifestation of their philosophy of life, if you will. Ideas precede and serve as the motive for actions. The problem lies within, but no one wants to admit it, to look within, to do the hard work of self-examination and purgation. Looking for the problem outside ourselves is so much easier; prescribing external solutions is much easier. Unfortunately, it is much too late for any of that. Cleanse the heart, the rest will follow; remain content with interior disorder, the exterior disorder cannot and will not change — in fact, it will only increase. Godspeed.

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_6YVYKKIHJJ6OBBJ52IYQDDQCJM JoanS

Thanks Eamon, good to know we can’t count on you to do anything.

TimothyMeadows

Well, yes and no. There is increasing evidence that the people in charge of corporations AND the government AND religious institutions are sociopaths. It makes sense. A sociopath does not care about the effect of his/her climbing the success ladder on other people, and can therefore climb that ladder more efficiently. Or, as an old friend of mine, a sociopathic dairy farmer used to say, “cream always rises,” by which he meant that if you cleanse the earth of its current leaders, a new crop of the same type will rise to take their places. Until this fact is recognized and dealt with (don’t ask me how) not much will change. If anyone gets out of the coming collapse alive, it may be the sociopaths who are amassing great wealth at this time. preparing to be the ones who can hire the serfs. The rest of us who are superfluous or refuse to be serfs can just, well, die off.

Ya’ll are all morons….Capitalism is what drives or economy! A Capitalist goes out and starts a business, makes money, and grows his business…in turn, he has to hire employees to help run the business, and to grow more…in turn, the business grows more, and he hires more people! I guess what I’m really saying is QUIT ‘OCCUPYING WALL STREET’ AND OCCUPY A FUCKING DESK, PHONE CALL SYSTEM…HELL, EVEN A DAMN COOKTOP/GRILL @ McDONALDS…..YA’LL LAZY “EXPECT EVERYTHING FOR NOTHING” ASSHOLES ARE THE PROBLEM THAT IS BRINGING MY GREAT COUNTRY DOWN!! GET A JOB YOU LAZY BITCHING BASTARDS!!!!!!!!

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_6YVYKKIHJJ6OBBJ52IYQDDQCJM JoanS

TheTRUTH is that you have absolutely no clue, and are evidently suicidal and homicidal. Pollution is real, industry causes it, it’s effects are slowly killing all life on the planet. Your answer is to hurry up and help industry grow faster so that we can all die faster. Die on your own time, I want my son to have a life.

TheTRUTH!

Ok, JoanS…ya’ll say that “pollution is causing Global Warming”…but, if you were as smart as you act, then you would know that the Earth goes through ‘Global Cycles’…do some research on Google to the know affects of Global Cycles….pollution breaks through the O-Zone layer and rides into space! Therefore effecting nothing on the planet permanently. The Earth is just in cycle 5, also know as ‘Rise’ where the temp all across the Earth is warming, and in 10-15years we will start to drop into another ‘Lowering’ which will eventually put the Earth into another IceAge! Do some basic scientific research…this great planet will be around for our children, unless ya’ll idiots ruin it first with over regulation!

Blah, blah, blah. I’ve been hearing intellectual pleas like this since the first earth day in 1970. Theres a few of us who read things like this and get it, but “the masses” just don’t care if trouble is not in their face. I hate to bring up the Nazi phenomena of the 1930s but I think until you have the equivalent of what happened then when, say, a loaf of bread cost a billion marks you won’t get the masses to organize and unite and change anything. And what ended up happening in Germany when the brain dead masses did do something doesn’t bode well for what might happen again. So until there is NO fish in the stores because of radioactive or heavy metal poisoning levels, or no gas at the stations, or a couple of fukashimas happening here and making life dificult NOTHING SUBSTANTIAL IS GOING TO CHANGE!!! And when it does happen there still won’t be enough of “us” to steer change in a positive direction. Its sad, and a pathetic commentary on human nature but there you have it. My two cents.

http://twitter.com/darkecologist Karl

both you, and Derrick, are super boring

TimothyMeadows

Sadly, I have to agree.

By the way, I heard about this on the radio podcast of either Mike Malloy or Peter B. Collins, can’t remember which, both worthy of your ear.

http://www.facebook.com/garnetbauble Joshua Collins

True. But, I haven’t given up & never will. Giving almost-daily physical effort consistently for couple years now. Used to be able to get groups of people to help. Now there’s only a couple of us left. I’m not-stopping even if at this entirely alone, which often I am. So what. It’s worth it.

Christophe Welch

You are right about this kind of narrative being true of 1930s Germany, but you then take the bait. You are right, this rhetoric has been recycled (pun intended) time and again.

ANNONYMOUS

Very good philosophy!!! Too bad most people (self included) could not go 1 week without checking there email, voice mail, sports center, facebook, watching the news, etc. The ideals discussed above would require work – physical labor. This is too hard, and I would rather order my groceries online so I don’t miss an episode of the Real World (Because this is reality). Kids of the future are already screwed. Parents are too busy with their careers and have let the schools raise the kids, but took all the displinary functions away from the teachers. The kids have no direction other than what the media feeds them through their ipods, ipads, ibrains….etc. FUTURE???

I love it! The whole “create poisons for which there is no antidote” or “make messes that cannot be cleaned up” is step too far in simplification of our problems and the solution to them. CO2 is a “poison.” Is it ok to burn wood to heat my home, or do we have an antidote for global warming? What about replanting a clear-cut? Is that cleaned up? The answers are complicated.

I don’t mean to discourage, just challenging you to reflect on those two sentences.

Private

That evening, Michael Ruppert went on the air to preach the progressive cosmology of Derrick Jensen.

I can only ask my Brothers & Sisters once again to quit trying to divide the 99% and “Stay Focused” on the Goal!!!

We have to have a Separation between Corporation & State FIRST before America can discuss the other issues. Any additional issues only serve to divied the 99% and are used to label US.

For now everything is controlled by who is profiting from what problem and just how much money they are willing to spend to keep it a problem.

Once again we need more a lot more Worker Bee’s and a little less Talker Bee’s. Get Out Get Active!

It’s time for the American Spring

R Scott Lewis

Understood. Corporations should just be for liability purposes.

Anomilus@madrantz

I too wish #OWS would stay focused and not spread itself so thin going after so many small issues that will produce little to no result. It is time more than ever to refocus and actually get something done.

CORRECTION NEEDED…
Please correct this paragraph:
“That any way of life based on the hyper-exploitation of renewable resources is by definition not sustainable: if, for example, fewer salmon return every year, eventually there will be none. This means that for a way of life to be sustainable, it must not harm native communities: native prairies, native forests, native fisheries, and so on.”

I believe it should read “That any way of life based on the hyper-exploitation of non-renewable…”

lolstupid

When utilized in a truly responsible way, these are renewable. The nature of hyper-exploitation makes them non-renewable.

TimothyMeadows

Yes, that is what it means. The stress is on the HYPER, i.e. so much exploitation that these resources are no longer renewable.

ProphecyNine

Declaration of the Four Sacred Things

The Earth is a living, conscious being. In company with cultures of many different times and places, we name these things as sacred: air, fire, water, and earth.

Whether we see them as the breath, energy, blood, and body of the Mother, or as the blessed gifts of a Creator, or as symbols of interconnected systems that sustain life, we know that nothing can live without them.

To call these things sacred is to say that they have a value beyond their usefulness for human ends, that they themselves become the standard by which our acts, our economics, our laws, and our purposes must be judged. No one has the right to appropriate them or profit from them at the expense of others. Any government that fails to protect them forfeits its legitimacy.

All people, all living things, are part of the earth life, and so are sacred. No one of us stands higher or lower than any other. Only justice can assure balance; only ecological balance can sustain freedom. Only in freedom can that fifth sacred thing we call spirit flourish in its full diversity.

To honor the sacred is to create conditions in which nourishment, sustenance, habitat, knowledge, freedom, and beauty can thrive. To honor the sacred is to make love possible.

To this we dedicate our curiosity, our will, our courage, our silences, and our voices. To this we dedicate our lives.

–Starhawk – The Fifth Sacred Thing

http://www.facebook.com/people/Dom-Romani/1570148306 Dom Romani

whoa whoa whoa…suddenly mister “Pacifism as Pathology” is trying to write the Occupy Declaration? Mr. arm yourself with an Ak-47 for protection, then call the FBI when someone threatens you? Mr. “some people are meant to blow up bridges. Thats not me.”? Stay far away from this guy people. Have any of you read “Language older than words?” Or Endgame? Nonesense, all of it. The man doesn’t understand social movements, he doesn’t even understand basic biology. He is an opportunistic blowhard, all he knows how to do is talk talk talk…While brave people were literally getting killed and beaten in the forests of Northern Cali to save the redwoods, he was getting all the attention writing books about it. Leave him out of Occupy, he isn’t even a proponent of non-violence! Now all of a sudden a non-violent movment is popular, and here he is, ready to be the mouthpiece for them! Anarchists told him to fuck off a long time ago, now it our turn

Alvy Singer

Dear Derrick

Someone once said that a work of art is never simply something pretty, hung on a wall… but always attempts to subvert your values and supplant the authors in you.
And I always think that means we’re obliged to listen to any responses we get, carefully.

though I agree with many of the thoughts behind it
I strongly object to much of your declaration on Occupy’s journal

So if you have time, I’m gunna go through some of it :

“We hold these truths to be self-evident”
Who’s we? Are you suddenly speaking for all Occupy. One of the essential characteristic of Occupy is how, it philosophically embraces and, represents a phenomenally open diversity.

“It is self-evident that to value a social system that harms the planet’s capacity to support life over life itself is to be out of touch with physical reality.”

Oh? Supporting a system that threatens to destroy our resources, is self-destructive?… if so, why use 22 more words than necessary to say that? isn’t that a waist of resources? One of the greatest things about the Declaration of independence is how succinct it is. ( Which has a profound meaning of itself…. Like when Saint Francis preached to the birds, and said to heck with doing this ritual in latin – - Man, let’s just communicate!)

The next twenty lines could also be simplified:
We ought to respect all forms of life, and better regulate to preserve bio-diversity.

But the next line I love:
That reality trumps all belief systems: what you believe is not nearly so important as what is real.

Ah! That owes to “Wittgenstein’s “Tractus”
” What is real, is the case.”
Arguably it’s considered the most important work of modern philosophy and which I too think we need to reconcile with our 21st century ideals of political democracy. ( But let’s get back to it at the end).

Your declaration goes on to say with certainty that the current way of life will collapse… ( Doom-dooom-doom! And the boy scouts motto: “be prepared!”)
But…

Humans have been here for only a tiny-tiny fraction of life’s existence on earth.
Most species that ever were, have all gone extinct. We’re not likely really talking about the extinction of life – just us, and the life forms we know. Even in the worse case nuclear scenario the cockroaches will come back, and life will flourish in new ways, and they’ll have lot’s of sex , it’ll be brutal, but the new pups will play and be real cute… sometimes you need to be a bit indifferent.

My sensible town in vermont is preparing for drastic changes in energy needs,
not Armageddon.
Our Global and local economies are deeply linked today…Morally, would it be okay with you if one sector of the economy ruined the global economy? ( cause thats what just happened).
Personally I like globalization, I just hate a lot of how it’s handled, (regulated).
I’d like to see more globalization, I’d like to see a better functioning world court, and UN. And I love just eating local, but I wouldn’t like my town to became isolationist and revert to a primitive tribal mentality… We take poor kids from cambodia, and grow llama’s and we trade… not just with neighbors… and not just things.

Corporations are not people, but for centuries law considers them as “persons” in respects ( i.e. with certain responsibilities! ) Dude, it’s just a semantic thing! They use arcane jargon… and yes, the Citizens United decision is partisan crap…. But law greatly revolves around using this verbal distinction…. it’s why we call half of it “corporate law”… In it, limited liability is a fantastic idea…. lets say some schmuck at the top kills someone for a profit – should all the shareholders then be tried and executed? Companies are a fairly natural way for people to join in endeavors together, to organize and regulate themselves. (and i doubt they’re likely to disappear soon).
Mega- multinationals need to be specially regulated – and they are already – but the regulations damn well need to be updated, and adjudicated internationally.
Nations should beware, because we need a new system based on consensus that has better vertical integration of local politics, that provides such local groups with comparable influences, as corporations now possess to determine our laws
( that is to say our regulations).

We don’t live under just simple capitalism, most nations have for some time what economists call “mixed economies”, and out of this combination of markets and social programs since world war two, we have raised two thirds of the worlds human population up from out of horrendous brutal subsistence living, ( No clean water, no toilet, no doctor, no food security high infant mortality) to a remarkably higher level of quality of life.

Today however we are very seriously sliding backwards, and corporate deregulation is greatly to blame; Since Goldman Sachs opened their food commodities trading in 1990, UN statistics show a drastic increase in the amount of people starving, because of consequent rising food prices.

But to say all our problems are simply capitalism’s fault is to my mind as simplistic as saying we just need “unfettered markets” – both are over-simplistic speculative nonsense.

isn’t it more likely… our institutions must evolve!

Perhaps Wittgenstein gives us a clue: when he goes on to reject his Tractus, he suggests we should better understand that all which we say and do is part of a self-reflexive perpetually shifting logical-laguage-game… and that the big problem for modern man is that he can no longer live in any one church… or bound to any simple fixed beliefs.

The thing about all the American founding fathers writing which I most admire is there factual precision is usually topped off by one crazy indisputable romantic flourish! Here’s a quote that I think wonderfully describes something I’ve sensed at the heart of occupy, and which connects us to that tradition:

“The moral of the great events of those days is this: that the people can discern right, and will make their way to a knowledge of right; That the whole human mind, and therefore with it the mind of the nation, has a continuous, ever improving existence; That the appeal from the unjust legislation of today must be made quietly, earnestly, perseveringly, to the more enlightened collective reason of tomorrow; That submission is due to the popular will, in confidence that the people, when in error, will amend their doings; That in a popular government, injustice is neither to be established by force, nor to be resisted by force; In a word, that the Union, which is constituted by consent, must be preserved by love.”
George Bancroft, 1845

” The single most important thing for human survival, is the development of our collective conscious” -Carl Jung

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alter-globalization There is a way to do both. First you have to have the will and the money to drag these folks into court. It is possible to prove beyond a shadow of doubt that what these corporates are doing is illegal. We shouldn’t throw everything away and start over-nor can we. We the people have dropped the ball. We can take back congress. We can make the corporate people change their minds and live right with the rest but it’s going to take some work. Second, it’s the vote sir. Carne Ross and his 9 half truths is wrong. He should go back to England and start a movement to write a constitution-they don’t have one and yes they need one. Remember; 1776. We don’t need a national referendum as some are suggesting. We have a good system of government it’s just been hijacked! A democratic republic works best for those who concentrate and gather consensus. A Democracy is when the people[voters] place trusted people places and things in their collective path(s). The Patricians of Rome created the Byzantine Empire and wrecked Europe for a thousand years, the same types still use these old tricks. They don’t fear our protests. The holding facilities are built. They have room for ALL of us and they own the facilities. It’s just more money for them. We have very little trustworthy things in our path right now. It’s our own fault. Third the major media has been taken over by big money[people we could influence through boy-cott and law] we need to show the courts why the FCC licenses are illegal to any broadcasting company that is involved in dumbing down the public. Nations that call themselves “states”; nations that have religious doctrines that run their governments are fearful of the vote. If the OCCUPY would get involved in what’s left of our current system once plugged in would begin to change things. It takes time, money, and people on the ground acting out their self evident truth to voice through consensus. It can be done. We can turn this around.

Magick

Derrick, Thank you for your determination to wake us up about the source of our life and our need to protect it.
I suggest that when you say no matter how rich or powerful, that is the matter, that only through the constitution’s declaration that ownership of land is legal can all this degradation take place.
That it is only because of our acceptance that ownership is legal can we be so divorced from our very source. When we accept ownership we are actually accepting enslavement of the earth as well as honoring the “founding fathers” for their work as accomplices to the “occupation” and “colonization’ of this continent.
We need to go deeper past the constitution as you most certainly did in your book ” Language older Than Words” to demonstrate that when the indigenous people were dehumanized and the land and all the other species were merely considered our resources that we were intended to have “dominion over’ we lost our soul connection.
No amount of logic can change our direction until our hearts our awakened to the loss of our connection to all our relations.
You can beat humans over the head forever about how wrong it is but it is only the awareness that we have lost our family and we need to come back home that will change our direction.
We are bereft and drifting in a nightmare of ego/mind delusions that give us a false sense of power and security, when all we need to do is come back home.
Then our hearts will tell us to never hurt our mother, our source again. And if one of us forgets others will remind us, once we tear up the deed to the ranch the wild earth will take us back!

I have been immersed in reading Derrick Jensen’s work closely over the last few months; my copies of his books are filled with yellow highlight markings, and notes in the margins. I do not always agree with his analysis; in fact, sometimes I profoundly disagree with him. But I could not agree more strongly with every sentiment expressed in his “New Declaration,” and I hope it is distributed and read widely.

Michael Swifte

Despite his vitriol Dom Romani hinted at a good point. This declaration belongs to occupy and as such will/should be continually contested and rewritten. On the question of Derrick’s legitimacy in his role as environmental scribe I’d have to say that though pieces like ‘Beyond Hope’ he spoke for many. But all this contestation speaks to the diffuse nature of the occupy movement which seems to embrace all the failures of our hegemony. Derrick (or anyone) might find strength in contemplating the 99% ( we are not all equally disempowered).

Christophe Welch

A tour de force of liberal-fascist “back to earth” politics. Should there be a standard uniform for us to wear, and will it be hemp woven?

http://twitter.com/FreeUSAFromDumb Nate Ivrson

My birth name is pointless, I am a child of Earth, I am one of the People. We, the People Agree.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1510628883 Rick Delmonico

Declaration of human rights

When in the natural course of human affairs, the leaders of the nations of the earth fail in their duty to:
Protect the dignity of it’s inhabitants,
Preserve the health of the environment,
Prevent the over accumulation of wealth to the elite, and
Provide the necessary means to settle disputes among nations.
Then it becomes incumbent upon the peoples of the earth to take as their right a greater part in the governing of their respective jurisdictions.

The purpose for government is to give all men in this generation and the generations that follow an equal opportunity for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
It is not the sole right of any country, group or person and when a leader, body or committee takes for themselves a greater share in order to deprive another group, person or generation, then by necessity the people shall assemble and overturn any decision or policy that is proven to be inequitable. Delmonico 1/15/11